I glanced at the guy in the chair, breaking the magical stare.
“I’m Hunter. I’m new here.”
I nodded, tongue tied.
He spun around and trotted to the chair to take his position.
My heart thudded, out of control, in my chest. I buried my face in my towel, pretending to dry it. The guard said, “Quit flirting.” Could the new boy, Hunter, be flirting with me? I chuckled at my overactive imagination.
No way. He’s so far above me—in every way—I must look like an ant to him.
I climbed into my chair and peered across the pool. Yes, the Glam Girls had zeroed in on him. I could almost see the ripple of excitement spread through them. That was who he’d date. A Mandy Cartwright or Trish MacIntyre. Maybe even Bethany Raman. Definitely not me. I shook my head, angry with myself for having even entertained the idea for even a second. It was ludicrous.
I threw myself into my chair. Why couldn’t I have even one good day at the pool? Was that too much to ask from the gods of summer? I messed with my chair, trying to find the position which would allow me to lie flat, but failing at it. The bar adjusting the lounger was jammed in the notches holding it in its current “L” position.
Come on. Come on.
I jerked on it, my agitation building. Without warning it came loose, knocking me solidly on my forehead before dropping to clang, like a clarion, against the base. I managed to not catapult myself out of the chair, but my elbow banged on the frame, that tender part which made the pain shoot all the way up my arm and into my neck.
I whimpered, but awkwardly slid my legs onto the lounger so I was lying on my stomach, trying to make it appear as if I planned on dropping the back like that the whole time. I closed my eyes tightly and chewed on my bottom lip, hoping the pain that caused would distract me from the agony pulsing all along my left side. I bunched my towel, using it as a pillow, and folded my arms on top of it, laying my forehead on them and taking in a breath through my teeth.
“Are you all right, Elise?”
You have to be kidding me.
Mandy Cartwright. An entity so evil it required both first and last name to identify it. How did she even get across the pool that fast? Flying on her broom? The visual that conjured up made me chuckle briefly, distracting me from my injury. I slowly turned over.
“Hi, Mandy.” I had to be polite to her. Her power base at Lincoln Southwest was so strong she could annihilate me with the slightest lift of the delicately painted nail of her pinkie finger.
“You seemed to be…struggling there, hon.” Her voice was so sugary-sweet it made my cavities ache.
“Yeah. I was.” I laughed, trying to blow it off.
She studied me. Since she failed to rattle me with her first comment, she shifted her aim. “Cute suit.” Her eyelids closed to the width of a slit. I waited for the insult which would surely follow. She licked her lips as if to savor her next words. “My little sister has that same one. Did you get it at Justice?”
Justice was the store at the mall targeted at tweens. I glanced down. Sadly, I was pretty sure I did get it at Justice a couple of years back.
Apparently she wasn’t looking for an answer, because she gave me a catty grin and spun on her heel. She took a diagonal path to the water, placing her within feet of Hunter’s chair. With her hands behind her, she lifted a foot, pointed her toes gracefully, and trailed them through the water as if testing the temperature, which she was well aware of since she was in it earlier. As would be expected, Hunter lowered his gaze to her.
I was surprised by the way my heart dropped into my stomach and the hot, familiar tears of defeat mounted. I turned away. I didn’t need to watch another victory for her, emphasizing how much of a loser I was.
“Umm…miss? Would you mind moving a few feet down? I need to have my path to the water clear.”
My head snapped around so fast it hurt my neck.
“Oh, uhh, sure.”
Mandy was obviously thrown by the fact that he didn’t fall out of his chair to grovel at her feet. He caught my eye, gave me that bright, sunny smile again, and winked. A warm flutter ran through me. Something caught his attention beyond me and the smile evaporated. He glanced away. As subtly as possible, I twisted to see what caused his strange reaction.
Mr. Haggerty. The pool manager and his boss. A man with the sense of humor of a pimple. My friend Scott McCord liked to call him The Dickless Wonder. I simply called him The Wonder, because he let me in one time when I forgot my pass. But most of the time he was jerk. I must have caught him on extra paycheck day or something. He and his shadow crossed in front of me as he headed straight for Hunter. Guy had on a suit and tie. It was ninety-five degrees out. I leaned ever so slightly in their direction to try to catch the conversation.
“Reynolds!” he hissed, his hands on his hips, pushing his suit coat back.
Hunter turned casually. “Oh, hey.” He slid his palms along the arms of his chair.
“What did you say to that woman?”
He blinked. “What woman?”
“What woman?” he mocked. “The woman who you were speaking to before I came over here.”
Hunter squinted, searching the pool area in front of him. He nodded in Mandy’s direction. “You mean her?”
“Yes, I mean her. Don’t l-l-loo—”he sputtered, shifting so his back was to the pool. “Don’t look at her!”
“Oookay?”
“Get down here so I can talk to you.”
Hunter sprang out of his seat agilely, landing lightly on his feet facing the chair then swung around. Mr. Haggerty took a deep breath and clamped onto one of Hunter’s colossal shoulders, then seemed to rethink that and patted it a couple of times before removing his hand. “You’re new—” he drew the words out “—so maybe you aren’t aware of who we’re dealing with here.”
“Uhh. I guess not.”
“That’s Stephen Cartwright’s daughter. You know who Stephen Cartwright is, don’t you?”
Hunter moved his head from side to side, scratching his temple.
“Stephen Cartwright,” his boss repeated, as if that would somehow jolt Hunter’s memory. “Cartwright? As in Cartwright Aviation?”
Hunter raised his shoulders and his brows at the same time. I had to chuckle. His face was so expressive.
It looked like The Wonder’s eyes were about to pop out of his skull. “You don’t know what Cartwright Avia—?” He swallowed and drew air in through his teeth. “Good God, boy! We need to get you up to speed. Stephen Cartwright was a major contributor to our locker room renovations. Like, he paid for close to half of it. So Amanda Cartwright gets carte blanche. You know what that means, Reynolds?”
“Blank check?”
“No.”
Hunter raised his gaze to mine. The corners of his lips twitched as he fought not to laugh, and his eyes sparkled like the sun dancing on the pool’s surface. He was about to get his butt fired. I coughed loudly, distracting The Wonder enough to give Hunter the chance to compose himself.
When Hunter’s boss whirled around, I patted my chest. “Excuse me. I swallowed wrong.”
He spun back to Hunter without saying anything to me. “It means Little Miss Cartwright can do whatever the hell she wants to and that whistle stays on your chest. Got that? I don’t care if she’s holding one of those kids with those floatie things on under water and they’re turning blue, your lips don’t touch—” he grabbed the whistle hanging from Hunter’s neck “—this whistle.”
“Like, literally? Won’t that piss off the kid’s parents if he drowns?”
“Not—” he slapped a hand to his forehead, then went through a series of movements which made him resemble a third base coach. He tugged on an ear, rubbed his stomach and put a finger against his nose. “—lit-er-al-ly.” He exhaled. “Just don’t blow the damn whistle on her! Geesh!” He stormed away and as he passed my chair, yanked on his tie and muttered, “I need to find a new job.”
I twisted to watch him unt
il he was out of earshot then spun around, laughing.
Hunter took a step in my direction and opened his mouth to say something when another lifeguard came up from behind him. “Hey. What was that all about, man? He seemed pissed.”
Hunter was forced to half-turn toward the lifeguard, but he nodded at me with a big smile before responding to him.
Again, I was filled with a tingling, and told myself not to get carried away. So he was a nice guy. That didn’t mean he was interested in me. Still, I couldn’t help but smile and be a bit lifted by the whole thing. Maybe summer poolside wouldn’t be that bad.
Hunter
I needed to watch how I acted in front of Mr. Haggerty, or as I liked to call him, The Lipless Wonder. But the guy was like a walking cliché. He was balding, with one long, black comb-over, which started like at the base of his neck and climbed across his scalp and somehow still managed to get in his face from time to time. He had more hair in his cheesy mustache than on the top of his head, and the fact that he clearly used product to “style” it only made the strands look greasy. The wide-rimmed glasses holding thick lenses added to his bug-eyed appearance and the man always wore a suit. Always. White shirt, lifeless colored suit coat, and one of a number of worn, splotchy, unfashionable ties he owned. And of course the lips. They were so thin they disappeared when he pressed them together in displeasure, which was his general expression. I pitied the man. His stomach lining had to be more ulcer than tissue if the ginormous bottle of aspirin on his desk was any indication. He was frequently rubbing his temples, or pinching the bridge of his nose, and he seemed to be in a constant state of alarm, his mustache twitching like a stressed out bunny’s nose.
But when he said carte blanch didn’t mean blank check? Well, I had to chuckle a bit.
And she laughed, too.
I took my gaze off the pool for a second to check her out in the chair across the pool from me. I was bummed when my twenty minutes were over and I had to move to a new chair and give my seat near her to another guard. She was pretty. And not in that glam-girl kind of way. Simple, understated. She didn’t even seem to have any makeup on and her blond hair was razor straight. She tucked it behind her ears. Her smile did something magical to me, but I got the sense she didn’t use it too often.
Shit. I need to stop getting distracted by patrons.
By her.
I shook my head. I wasn’t here to check out the locals. Refocusing, I surveyed the pool as I was taught, from my feet to the far side, from where my section started to where it ended, lengthwise and zig-zag.
“Excuse me.”
I glanced down. It was that Mandy girl again. I fought to not roll my eyes. “Yes.”
“Umm…” She bit her bottom lip, which she probably thought was cute or sexy, but it just looked dumb. “How deep is the water here?”
She’s kidding, right? Directly under her foot was a painted sign which read “six feet.” At least two feet tall. In red.
But I remembered what Mr. Haggerty said and made an effort to be polite. “It’s six feet deep.” I shifted my attention to the swimmers.
“You take your job pretty seriously,” she observed.
“Uhh, yeah. If one of these kids drown, it’d be pretty serious.”
“I think saving them is messing with God’s plan,” Terry Kennedy said. I hadn’t seen him approach. “Hi, Mandy.” He was my fellow lifeguard and the only person I’d come close to connecting with in the two weeks since we’d moved to Lincoln. Well, he and the girl in the polka dot suit…
Mandy’s face turned hard. “Hi.” She spun on her heel and went back to her lounge chair.
“How’d you do that? You have some sort of trick?”
“For making Mandy go?”
I nodded.
“You have to be repulsive in her mind. You, I’m afraid, don’t qualify. You’re fresh meat. She’ll be hounding you all summer.”
“Great.”
A mom with a cheetah print bikini under a white fringy cover up wearing high heeled sandals—why do those even exist?—approached. “Hello. It’s my Jimmy’s birthday today. So, could you sing “Happy Birthday” to him?”
“We—” I glanced at Terry. He was grinning at her, but apparently letting me take this one. “—don’t do that.”
She shaded her eyes with her hand as she gazed at me. “Really?”
“Yes, ma’am. Really.”
“Hmm.” She turned away but muttered. “Like it would kill you to sing ‘Happy Birthday’.”
I laughed. “It’s not like we’re Chucky Cheese. We are, like, trying to guard your kid’s life.” I appealed to Terry. “Was she for real?”
“Oh, yeah, dude. You get all kinds of strange requests like that. Just you wait.”
“Great. I’m sure it will be interesting.”
“Don’t look now,” Terry said under his breath. “Moving island at twelve o’clock.”
He was referring to a figure right below me. A pregnant woman was doing the backstroke. It was kind of an odd sight.
“You want me to get you some water? I’m filling mine.”
“Yeah. Actually, that would be great.” I tossed him my bottle. “Thanks, man.”
Some splashing caught my attention. A couple of kids were having a sword fight with those Styrofoamy pool noodles. Splashing kids display the same signs as drowning kids.
Behind me, I recognized the slapping sound feet made when someone is running on the wet concrete. I grabbed my whistle as I rotated my head to identify the culprit. I gave it a short blast, but the kid didn’t turn.
“Hey!” I yelled, annoyed. This time he spun to stare at me. He was….well, I’m not very good at the whole guessing ages thing, but…maybe seven or eight, or somewhere in that range. He had freckles splashed on each cheek and reddish hair with a section sticking straight up like an Indian brave’s feather. “No running on deck.”
He put one hand on a cocked hip and stuck out his chin. “What are you going to do about it?”
My mild irritation escalated like an express elevator. “I’m gonna kick your—” my jaw tensed to hold back the curse word already tickling my tongue “—butt out of here. You need to follow the rules.” I gave him a withering look, only he didn’t wither.
“Yeah. I don’t take crap from any guy wearing a fanny pack.”
Little shit. Every lifeguard has a line, and he crossed mine the minute he walked through the gate.
He had one thing right, though. There was no way to be cool in a fanny pack. He wheeled around and sauntered away. I couldn’t believe it. I could flatten him and use his unruly hair to mop up the water in the pool’s gutters. I raised my whistle again.
“Save your breath.”
I searched for the speaker. Terry stood, holding our water bottles, watching the kid walk away. “That’s Haggerty’s kid.”
I was speechless for an instant. “He….procreated.”
Terry grinned. “Yeah. Hard to imagine, ain’t it?”
“Eww.” I scanned the water, checking for bodies at the bottom of the pool. “I don’t want to imagine that. Please do not ever say that again.”
He chuckled. “Well, you’re done with the turdball for today. I’m here to relieve you.”
Already?
Wait. Where did that thought come from? My usual response is, “Finally.”
“Oh. Cool.” I climbed down. “I wish I could go back in time and strangle the guy who invented pool noodles.”
“I know. I hate those things. Right now I want to strangle the weatherman. Sprinkles, my ass.”
I shot a glance across the pool. Her seat was empty. I froze, searching, and spotted that polka dot suit, and the girl who wore it, about halfway to the exit.
Shit.
Terry handed me my bottle and rubbed his face. “You ever forget your sunglasses? You might as well splash acid in your eyes.”
I slid mine off and gave them to him. “Here.”
“Ahh. No, man. You don’t have to
do that.”
“No big deal. You’ve got to protect those peepers. They’re your livelihood.”
He examined my shades. “True.”
“Take ’em. I gotta go, Terry. Have a good night.” I was already several feet away, again sweeping my gaze over the opposite side of the pool. A family of six held her up on a narrow section of concrete between some loungers and the waterside.
God bless them.
I didn’t know why it had suddenly become so imperative to catch her, or even what I intended to do when I caught her, but I didn’t seem to be in the mood to question it. I increased my speed, but my inner voice scolded, “No running on the deck.” I peered in her direction and my feet slowed. She was talking to a guy.
Of course she has a boyfriend. Why would I not think about her having a boyfriend?
My stomach dropped, and a wave of cold washed along my skin. He was maybe an inch or two taller than me, with longer, reddish blond hair. His chest was broader than mine, and he was pretty jacked on the whole, maybe bigger than I was. I assessed their body language. They stood close, but not touching. They were clearly comfortable with each other, but were they boyfriend and girlfriend? Elise smacked him on his arm and he laughed, rubbing it.
“Excuse me?”
I jumped at the voice so near me. “Oh. Sorry.” I hadn’t even realized I’d stopped and was blocking an aisle between the sunbathers and the swimmers. I stepped aside so a pair of girls could pass. They both smiled at me.
“Hi,” one said.
“Hey,” I responded, focusing on Elise without paying her further attention. Elise and Mr. Muscles continued to exchange words in an animated way, then the guy lifted his gaze and caught me staring at them. His jaw tightened, and he lifted his chin in my direction and said something. Elise began to turn, and I sped away, not wanting her to spot me spying on her. My heart raced. Had she seen me?
Why do I care?
I took a deep breath and gave my head one strong shake, laughing at myself. A shadow crossed the concrete in front of me, and someone stepped directly into my path. I looked up. Mandy.
“Hi.”
“Oh. Hi.” I tried to move around her.
Hell Hath No Fury Page 4
